After a day of media reports and social media statements decrying Instagram, the photography
app's co-founder Kevin Systrom sought to prevent an exodus of users by
promising that the company has no intent to sell user photos.
Instagram
changed its terms of service this week using language that suggested
that the app, and its owner Facebook, would be allowed to sell people's
uploaded photos or related data to third parties without permission.
Users
reacted with fury to the suggestion that their carefully filtered
photos of Thai food and drunken escapades could be used by Instagram
advertisers to promote products without them receiving compensation.
Many
deleted their accounts and began exploring their other social sharing
options for photos on sites such as Flickr and Hipstamatic.
But on Tuesday evening, Systrom released a statement clarifying that Instagram had no intention of selling user photos.
"To
be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working
on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear," Systrom
said.
He also said that the rewritten terms were meant to legally
provide for room to experiment with "innovative advertising" in the app.
Systrom's explanation reads much like the model of advertising
employed by its owner Facebook. This means that the company could
analyse which brands a user follows on Instagram and use their data,
profile pictures and photos to show their Instagram followers that they
follow that business.
"The language we proposed also raised
questions about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement,"
Systrom said. "We do not have plans for anything like this and because
of that we're going to remove the language that raised the question."
The
company says the advertising they made way for in the terms of service
is meant as a way to avoid banner ads and other things "that would hurt
the Instagram user experience".
In the blog post, Systrom also
clarified that the app neither owns user content nor claims rights to
it, and the new change in terms won't allow them to.
"We respect
that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their
heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos
are your photos," Systrom said.
Finally, Systrom clarified that
nothing will change about privacy settings, which state that if your
photos are private, they can only be shared with the people who users
approved them to be shared with.
Systrom said there will be more
updates and that the proposed changes were released early so people
could provide feedback before they go into effect in 30 days.